-Transcript-
00:24 Amen. Glory to God. Welcome to the program.
00:30 Welcome to the Cafe. My name is Pastor Clark Covington, Heartland Community Baptist Church out of Kings Mountain, North Carolina, right here near Shelby and not too far from South Mountain and Waco and Lincolnton and so forth. So glad you’ve joined me here today.
00:46 Amen. Maybe you’re in a different area. Maybe you’re in the Raleigh area or maybe you’re in Florida or Tennessee.
00:54 We’ve got a lot of different stations, praise God, that broadcast KJV Cafe. And I’m so thankful for all of our station partners, amen. And we’re just so thankful that you’re tuning in today.
01:06 So today we are in the second part of a two-part series here on what’s too hard for God. And I love, love, love preaching about God’s strength. It encourages me, amen, to preach about it, to read about it, to study it.
01:21 I’m encouraged. Oh, we had a good service last night. I took this message, shared it with the congregation and it was like a weight was lifted off of them.
01:31 And you know, if you’ve been in church for some time and you see people fellowshipping for a long time after church and just laughing and like burdens were lifted.
01:44 And I just thank God that the Holy Spirit showed up last night and we were able to just enjoy a good fellowship there and enjoy the Lord. Amen.
01:49 And so I’m so thankful for that. And I hope and pray that this will be a blessing to you as well, amen. Because I believe that God likes it when we talk about how strong he is.
01:59 If you had all the power in the world, all the power in the universe and no one ever talked about it, you’d probably get a little frustrated. So let’s get right to it.
02:06 Our text verse Jeremiah 29:11-13, for I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil to give you an expected end.
02:20 Then shall you call upon me and you shall go and pray unto me and I will hearken unto you and you shall seek me and find me when you shall search for me with all your heart.
02:29 Lately, the word heart has really been a lot of our messages lately talking about how the heart is kind of that deepest part of our soul here on earth and how our hearts can bring forth good things or bad things and how what starts in the heart, the evil or the good comes out of our mouth and, uh, you know,
02:52 the Romans 10:9-10 tells us that we believe in our heart and then we express that with our mouth. That’s how salvation occurs.
02:59 Amen. And so we realize that God has good plans for us and there’s this relationship here that we seek God, we call upon him, we pray to him, he listens to us.
03:15 We find him and we seek him with our whole heart and we realize that that’s what he wants because he has a good plan for us, a peaceful plan, not of evil to give you an expected end.
03:19 When I think of a great vacation, I think of one that’s very peaceful, right? Isn’t that what you ever thought about that? Like what, what makes a great vacation?
03:27 It’s not like running around and doing all these gimmicky things and all. I think a great vacation is one where you have a lot of peace, you know, and, uh, in life we seem to not have a lot of peace.
03:38 That’s the whole point of why you got to go on vacation, amen, because there’s so much stress and turmoil and it’s like the, the, the drying cycle in the dryer, you’re just tumbling through it.
03:51 Amen. Well, God doesn’t want us to just tumble through it, through it. He wants us to seek him and to seek him in a way in a light that we understand that he has a plan for us and that he has the power to bring forth this plan.
04:04 And we spoke about last episode that God’s not like us, so we shouldn’t expect a human-like plan or effort.
04:11 We spoke of Isaiah 55:8-9 for my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways sayeth the Lord for as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
04:22 And so we realized that, you know what? God is not like us, so we should not apply human-like limits to a, um, all powerful God, right? We should not apply human-like understanding to an all powerful God.
04:34 Just because we don’t understand what God’s doing, doesn’t mean that God’s not doing something good for those that believe on him, for those that love the Lord, they’re called according to his purpose.
04:49 We know that all things work together for good as Romans 8:28 tells us. So why are we limiting God? In that very book, Isaiah, um, God speaking through the prophet Isaiah tells us that, you know, look, my arm is not a weak, okay? My ear is not deaf.
05:05 I can, I’m strong. I can hear, I can hear your prayers and I can answer them, but you got to seek me, which is part of Jeremiah 29:11-13 telling us that we have to seek God. We do.
05:14 And guess what? When we seek God, we get that answer that our soul thirsts for, that we are so desperate for. You know that song as the deer, uh, panteth for the water, amen, uh, so does my soul pant for thee. Like we just say, God, we need this Lord.
05:30 We need peace in our life. We need resolution from this issue. We need deliverance from this problem.
05:39 God, how can it be Lord? What can we do? When we get into his word, we seek him. We realize that there’s a promise there that God will not fail us. This is the believer.
05:49 I mean, I’m speaking to believers here today.Deuteronomy 31:6 be strong and of a good courage. Fear not, nor be afraid of them for the Lord, thy God.
05:59 He, it is that doth go with thee. He will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. He will not fail you or forsake you.
06:05 Isaiah 41:10, fear thou not, I am with thee. Be not dismayed for I am thy God.I will strengthen thee, ye, I will help thee.
06:18 I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. So we have God promising to us, now I know the Old Testament is written to the Jewish people, to his chosen people, but we being Gentiles being saved by Jesus Christ on the blood of the cross, which is mentioned throughout the Old Testament, we’re saved by Jesus Christ’s precious blood that he died for us.
06:40 The Bible says that without the shedding of blood, there’s no remission of sin.
06:42 When Christ died for us on that cross at Calvary, and was buried in the grave three days, and was risen again miraculously from the grave, when he did that at Calvary, him being perfect, him being sinless, he went on the cross, not for his own need for any sacrifice, but to sacrifice himself, being God in the flesh,
07:03 for the needs of all mankind, because we’re all sinful ever since Adam and Eve, Eve of that forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden, sin entered the picture, and we all have that sin debt that we cannot pay on our own.
07:16 And Christ died for us on the cross, and we accept Christ as Savior, we’re saved, that’s it. You don’t need to join a church, you don’t need any special relationship, you don’t need to go to school, you don’t need to have money, you don’t need to have status, you don’t need to sing a special song, or be in a particular club, all you have to do is believe on what I just explained Jesus did for you.
07:36 And the big part of that is realizing that you have a sin nature. A lot of people say they don’t have a sin nature. I’ve been there, where I’ve thought, well, these other people are sinners, but I don’t know about me, I think I’m pretty good, and the Lord showed me in a not so subtle way how evil and wicked I am like anyone else.
07:57 And at that point, I realized I needed a Savior, and when I accepted Him as Savior and Lord, my name was written down in the Lamb’s Book of Life, never to be blotted out, never to be erased, and that opportunity is there for you, and I can say that confidently, standing on the Word of God, no matter who you are or what you’ve done, you can be saved today if you trust in Christ, and I urge you to pray right now and ask Jesus to save you, and He will.
08:17 And for those of you that are saved, why are you worried? We see here in Deuteronomy 31:6 and Isaiah 41:10 that God Himself is saying, look, I promise you just need to be of good courage and fear not, right?
08:31 Because I promise I’m not going to fail you and I’m not going to leave you, okay? Now the preacher here worries about God leaving, God failing. The preacher here worries about it.
08:44 That means that practically everybody listening, I would imagine, worry about it too. We’re human, we’re sinful, we have doubts. The disciples, right, they saw Jesus in the flesh, they watched Him work miracles, and they were worried when the boat was rocking there, amen.
08:58 And they were, you know, and Jesus was like, are you serious, do you know? I mean, did you not see what I just did, you know, how many thousands I’ve fed, how many many that I’ve healed and all this, and I’ve spoken all this wisdom to you and you’re worried about the wind? Even the disciples.
09:12 So we need to realize that we, being in our human form, are earthly, are carnal, are sinful, even those that are saved, we still have this part of us that is of the world that we need God and His promises to cleanse us from that.
09:29 We need that sanctification, that cleansing from God that only He can provide. And we’re called to be strong and have good courage and fear not.
09:37 Why? Because God has all the power. God is the one. He upholds us, right? He upholds us.
09:45 And this is what’s so amazing about this principle, is if God has all the power, right, and He upholds us, then even in very difficult times, God is not asking us to have power.
09:53 What is He asking us to do? Have faith, amen. Faith is the key. Faith is the key.
10:05 Hebrews 11:6, without faith it is impossible to please Him. For he that cometh to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. One of my favorite verses in the Bible.
10:19 But without faith it is impossible to please God. We must believe in God. Everything I’ve said in this message and the previous one about God’s power, it’s only relevant if you have faith.
10:30 If you don’t have faith, none of this will do you any good. If you don’t have faith, if you don’t really believe that God is who He says He is and a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him, you won’t diligently seek Him and you won’t believe any of this will happen, amen.
10:43 And yet God doesn’t say, I need you to have a huge faith. God says, have a little faith, Matthew 17:20.
10:51 And Jesus said unto them, because of your unbelief, for verily I say unto you, if ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, remove hence to yonder place, and it shall remove, and nothing shall be impossible unto you.
11:05 Well, Jesus is saying that because if you have that little bit of faith, then you can use, you can have, appropriate, you can have God’s power on your life and by the working of the Holy Spirit, then nothing becomes impossible.
11:20 Even moving mountains, it doesn’t become impossible because God, by the working of the Holy Spirit through you, can do all things.
11:30 He is God, amen. And a mustard seed is not big. We were camping at a campground, I think it was last summer, I think it was two summers ago, and it was a Christian campground, and I love going to the service on Sundays because being a preacher,
11:43 I rarely get to sit in the service, and I went and sat in the service, and the Sunday school lesson, they kind of do that in front of the whole congregation there at the campsite, or the camp picnic shelter,
11:52 and the wonderful teacher there, who seemed to be just on fire for God, had taken a mustard seed and put it in little jars and gave it to all the kids.
12:01 And so that was one of the first times I’ve ever seen a mustard seed, and it was just the tiniest little thing.
12:06 And so if we look at this tiny thing, it was, you know, the God of all knowledge is giving us this example for having faith. He doesn’t expect us to have some crazy, unreasonable faith, right?
12:17 Where we’re just, okay, okay, I’m going to jump out the window and God will catch me. No, that’s tempting God.
12:32 We’re having a faith that is based in scripture. We’re having a faith that is based in looking at creation and seeing that the creation testifies to an intelligent design. We’re having faith that is reasonable, that is logical, and that is 100%, again, based on the scripture.
12:41 And if you don’t have that faith today, Romans 10:17 tells you that, so then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. So God not only tells us we just need a little faith, he tells us how we can grow our faith by getting into the word.
12:51 And once we do that, we should realize that we can rest, Matthew 11:28, come unto me all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
13:02 So this is so interesting. There’s these diametric roles. God is saying, I’m powerful, I’ll do all the hard stuff.
13:09 You simply believe and then rest. Rest in me. You know, if you’re heavy laden, you’re burdened down, just rest in me.
13:15 His power wins. We are okay being weak. I don’t have time to speak of it, but 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 tells us that Paul writes that he is made strong in his weakness, that he glories in his infirmities.
13:27 He glories in them. I mean, we don’t do that, do we? We grumble about them and we carry on with these heavy burdens, amen.
13:35 And God is telling us through his word, have faith, don’t limit my power, and then rest in me. Have faith in God, don’t limit his power, and rest in him.
13:48 And how do we have faith? We get into his word. We study his word. As we study his word, he reveals himself to us more and more.
13:55 And that helps our faith grow deeper and deeper. Think about it. You get into his word, you study prophecy, you go see online or go to the place the prophecy took place.
14:03 You say, wow, God is real. Wow, God really did do that. On and on and on.
14:08 The Holy Spirit gives you discernment over the text. On and on. I wish I had more time, but I don’t.
14:14 But trust me. Instead of trusting me, trust God, amen? Have faith, spend time in his word, and watch him through his power work a good work while you rest, while you rest in him.
14:25 Thank you so much for listening. Take care. God bless and amen.